Rare’s told VG247 that the Xbox community “may” receive features allowing them to create their own Avatar kit, saying that user-generation was simply too big a deal to force into NXE’s launch last year. “User-generated content is a huge area that would not have been done any justice if we had tried to cram it […]

The HDMI audio bug that hit some Xbox 360 owners with the launch of New Xbox Experience can breathe easy: Microsoft’s about to release a fix. “Starting Tuesday morning at 0200 Pacific when you sign into Xbox Live you’ll be prompted for a mandatory dashboard update,” said the Major this evening. “The update addresses the […]

Xbox production head Aaron Greenberg’s released a ton of stats on post-NXE Live, and it all makes for cheery reading. If you’re Microsoft. And you’re prepared to gloss over the fact that none of these benchmarks t have real numbers attached to them. Bullets, all taken from Joystiq an Nelson: Marketplace downloads of TV episodes […]

According to this X3F post, the first pack of Avatar clothing has been added to NXE, and it’s all free. The clothes are winter-themed, including gloves, ski-wear, and whatnot. For those of you that were simply gagging to put new hat on your Avatar, today is a great day. Through the link.

X3F’s put together a list of commands to change New Xbox Experience’s Avatars’ expressions, make them burp, make them dizzy, and whatnot. It’s Monday morning, so we thought you may appreciate it. Maybe not, obviously. Take a look.

The X3F story, quoting German site dreisechzig.net brings word that promised Avatar clothing for NXE will be free… for now. From the piece: Boris Schneider-Johne (Microsoft’s Xbox product manager in Germany) confirmed that the first few weeks of new Avatar clothes will be available for free, but doesn’t go as far to say that all […]

The AVForums are currently awash with people complaining about a sudden loss of sound through HDMI after they installed the New Xbox Experience this week. If you’re one of these people then don’t worry: apparently all you have to do is turn off the 360, take out the HDD, turn in on again, and while […]

TombRadar’s posted some shots of the Sugababes singing in Lips and NXE in London last night, and it all looked very sparkly. Apparently the trio sang Duffy’s Mercy at the event. You had to be there, clearly. Take a look.

NXE’s XNA community games don’t appear to be available in all European regions. Reports on the Eurogamer forums suggest that both Denmark and Norway simply don’t have the Community Games menu option in the new dash. Which means we can’t play them either. Catastrophic. Perhaps it’s just Scandinavia that has been left out? We’re contacting […]

The Major’s posted up links to a bunch of premium themes in NXE, just in case you thought the theme boat had saled from Microsoft console user interfaces. There’s lots of stuff there from Gears 2, Halo 3, and so on. Go ahead and brighten up your life.

Nelson’s posted to say the NXE team is aware that Xbox Live Marketplace is experiencing some “issues” – as in, it’s not working properly – but that in general, yesterday’s release of the New Xbox Experience was “incredible”. “As you can imagine, it’s been an incredible day so far for the New Xbox Experience,” said […]

Sony’s played down the fact it’s stopped Columbia movies being streamed onto Xbox 360’s via Netflix by saying it’s an issue not specific to the platform. Happens all the time, apparently. “This issue is not specific to Xbox or any other individual platform,” a Sony Pictures spokesperson told MTV. “Sony Pictures is currently in discussions […]

There’s a lengthy explanation from Bungie here as to why Halo 3’s load times are increased by installing the game the an NXE-enabled 360’s hard drive. For the time-pressed reader: the game caches maps to the HD whether it’s loading from the disc or the drive. Hence, if it’s running from the HD, it’s reading […]

We’ve been hearing plenty of reports throughout the day of patchy access to the new Xbox Live marketplace following this morning’s launch of NXE, as has Kotaku. The problems have been occurring for both the website and 360 interfaces. The UI update his another snag in the form of US users not being able to […]

UK band the Sugababes are to launch NXE in Britain tomorrow night, “with a very special performance in central London as they’ve never been seen before,” according to Microsoft. The mind boggles. Apparently the “girls” are going to have a bit of a go on Lips and meet their Avatars, all in the aid of […]

The Major’s just confirmed the release of A Kingdom for Keflings, the first 360 game to supports Avatars. The title’s a world-building thing, with the main characters your lovely new Avatars. Blurb: [ESRB: E (EVERYONE) MILD CARTOON VIOLENCE] Xbox LIVE Multiplayer 2-4, HD (High Definition). Unlock the full version of A Kingdom for Keflings for […]

Major Nelson’s just posted up a top ten list of things to do with your brand spanking, now-launched, New Xbox Experience. First iff is to create an Avatar, apparently. Then to take a GamerPic of it. Then loads of other stuff. Get it all after the break. Thanks, Roybott!

Rare knocked up an Avatar of me a while back, but we’ve had to sit on the images until NXE launched. So here they are, after the break. That’s me, there, laughing and smiling. This is something I very rarely do, but this ably shows the cartoon nature of NXE’s Avatar stuff. As you should […]